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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25367551">The Girl Who Played With Monsters</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/melodicBooknerd13/pseuds/melodicBooknerd13'>melodicBooknerd13</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Fantasy, F/F, beast marianne, no beta we die like Glenn</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 09:26:51</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,546</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25367551</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/melodicBooknerd13/pseuds/melodicBooknerd13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>For years, there had been rumors of a girl who lived in the woods outside the village, only the monsters to keep her company. The myths would contradict each other. Some say the monsters raised her. Others, that she attracts them, controls them to attack the village folk. Some believe she was a villager who had wandered into the woods, and was attacked and transformed into a beast herself.</p>
<p>It was rare that the villagers ventured far into the woods, except to collect firewood. Parents would warn their children to never go too deep into the woods, or the monster girl would get them. Hunters were rumored to have gone in, either for food or for the girl herself, and never be seen again. Watchmen were posted every night, to prevent anyone from entering the woods.</p>
<p>No matter what version of the story a villager believed, they all could agree on one thing: the girl was dangerous.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Marianne von Edmund &amp; Hapi, Marianne von Edmund/Hapi</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>19</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Girl Who Played With Monsters</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>For years, there had been rumors of a girl who lived in the woods outside the village, only the monsters to keep her company. The myths would contradict each other. Some say the monsters raised her. Others, that she attracts them, controls them to attack the village folk. Some believe she was a villager who had wandered into the woods, and was attacked and transformed into a beast herself.</p>
<p>It was rare that the villagers ventured far into the woods, except to collect firewood. Parents would warn their children to never go too deep into the woods, or the monster girl would get them. Hunters were rumored to have gone in, either for food or for the girl herself, and never be seen again. Watchmen were posted every night, to prevent anyone from entering the woods.</p>
<p>No matter what version of the story a villager believed, they all could agree on one thing: the girl was dangerous.</p>
<hr/>
<p>Marianne was running, the moon as her guide. The villagers thought it was a monster, that much she knew, but she couldn’t risk being seen. Her parents were dead, and she could only blame herself.</p>
<p>She was used to having small gaps in her memory. She would wake up as a child, and her room would be a mess, or she had a cut or two on her side. It was never something she couldn’t fix, even if she couldn’t figure out what had happened. As she got older, she started finding small bones around where she awoke, birds or squirrels with claw marks in them, blood under her fingernails. The villagers whispered of a monster on the outskirts of the village, attacking her family’s livestock during the night, though they never noticed the girl waking up in the pasture, praying as she fled the scene.</p>
<p>She was coming up fast on the woods. She didn’t stop, she knew the watchmen would be paying attention to the supposed monster attack at her home, so she could slip in unnoticed.</p>
<p>She kept running until she started to run out of breath, and even then she continued moving. Eventually, she came across an overturned tree, and sat down to catch her breath. She was deep into the woods, farther than she knew the hunters normally went.</p>
<p>Marianne sat quiet, still, listening to the sounds around her. A deer approached her, and knelt down next to her, sensing her anxiety. Marianne gently spoke to the deer, stroking her head after she was told she could.</p>
<p>She sat with the deer for a few minutes, calming herself. Her head suddenly started going foggy, and Marianne told the deer to run away, quickly. The deer stayed for a moment, but left, sensing the urgency in Marianne’s voice.</p>
<p>Marianne sat still, and suddenly, the world turned black.</p>
<hr/>
<p>A bit further into the woods, a girl sighs.</p>
<p>Hapi never means to sigh. It just sorta slips out, when she gets too upset to properly control herself.</p>
<p>As it started to rain, she walked back to her home, a small hut made of logs, leaves, and some scrap fabric she collected whenever she snuck into the nearby village for supplies. Using some supplies she found from a satchel a hunter left behind once, she works to treat the cuts on her arm.</p>
<p><em>“I should go back to the village soon,” </em>she thinks, noticing that her medical supplies are low. She starts to plan when she’ll head in. It’s too late into the night now to go in and get out unnoticed, she decides.</p>
<p>She knew the myths. A monstrous girl that lives in the woods, controlling the beasts and killing anyone who crosses her path. They aren’t true, but it’s not like she can tell the villagers that. The villagers only knew that monsters lurked, and a girl was in there with them. But she wasn’t a monster herself.</p>
<p>She ran away from the village when she was nine, after a monster attacked and killed her parents, nearly killing her. As she got older, she started to notice the pattern in when monsters would try attacking her. She got good at catching herself when she was about to sigh. But, even at 21, she still let some sighs slip by unnoticed, much for her annoyance.</p>
<p>As she finished treating her cuts, she heard a growl outside of her hut, approaching fast. Realizing that she must have sighed, Hapi curses, and lies down still. Better to let the monster think she’s dead than to risk greater injury in fighting it, she’d learned long ago. After what felt like an eternity, the growling stopped. A soft thud is heard on the other side of the wall.</p>
<p>Readying a spell, Hapi slowly leaves her hut, to find the source of the sound. <em>“The monster couldn’t have just kicked the bucket, could it?”</em> Carefully, she walks around the side, and stops at the sight of a girl passed out on the ground.</p>
<p>The girl couldn’t have been more than 18 or 19, her pale blue hair a mess, her dress ripped, covered in dirt and leaves, soaked by the rain. <em>“What could this girl have been doing in the woods, especially this late at night?”</em></p>
<p>Hapi gently lifted the girl, careful not to wake her, and brought her inside, setting her down on the floor. The girl slept peacefully, making almost no sound.</p>
<p>Hapi watched her. She didn’t understand how she could have heard a monster approaching, but instead find a girl, an unconscious one at that. Maybe she was another runaway? She knew that there had been a monster in the village recently, something could have happened to her.</p>
<p>Eventually, the girl began to wake up, and Hapi grabbed her small hunting knife, just in case.</p>
<p>“Goddess, what happened...,” the girl whispers, before noticing Hapi sitting across from her. She screams, and Hapi quickly claps her hand over the girl’s mouth to quiet her.</p>
<p>“Who are you?” She removes her hand so that the girl can speak.</p>
<p>“I- I’m Marianne. Where am I?” The girl, Marianne, seemed terrified.</p>
<p>“I found you passed out outside. You’re lucky I found you when I did, I had heard a beast approaching. Why were you in the woods this late?”</p>
<p>“Um, I just wanted to go for a walk...”</p>
<p>“In the middle of the night, through woods that are rumored to have a monster girl?”</p>
<p>Marianne had forgotten about the “monster girl.” “I think I should go, sorry!” She got up and tried hurrying out, but Hapi grabbed her wrist.</p>
<p>“You think I’m gonna kill you, don’t you?” Hapi wasn’t surprised. Who wouldn’t want to escape from some supposed savage killer?</p>
<p>“It isn’t safe for you to be around me!” Marianne tried to free her wrist, but Hapi held it tight.</p>
<p>“I’m not going to hurt you, Marianne.”</p>
<p>“But I might hurt you!”</p>
<p>Hapi’s grip on her wrist loosened, and Marianne turned to leave.</p>
<p>“Wait, what do you mean you might hurt me? I’m the one that’s supposed to be some 'killer beast' or whatever.”</p>
<p>Marianne sighed and slowly sat back down. “Being around me is a terrible idea. I can only ruin things. It’d be safer for you if I just left.”</p>
<p>The was a moment of silence between the two, the only sound being the splashing of the rain picking up outside, a crack of thunder. In times like these, Hapi was glad her roof was mostly stormproof.</p>
<p>“Fine. I’m not safe around you for some reason. At least stay the night, it’s pretty bad out there.”</p>
<p>Marianne thought for a moment. A loud crack of thunder. “O- Ok. I’ll stay.”</p>
<p>“Thank you.” Hapi handed Marianne her blanket. “Make yourself comfy.”</p>
<p>“Oh no, I couldn’t possibly-“</p>
<p>“Take it. I’ll be fine.”</p>
<p>Marianne begrudgingly lay down under the blanket. “Do you have a name?”</p>
<p>Hapi was silent for a moment, considering the risks, but figured it was alright. “Hapi.”</p>
<p>“Hapi. That’s nice...” Marianne drifted off to sleep, and Hapi soon followed on the other side of the floor.</p>
<hr/>
<p>Hapi woke up the next morning to see Marianne still fast asleep. A thought drifted through her mind about how cute and peaceful she looked, but she shook it aside and went to gather breakfast.</p>
<p>When she returned from gathering some berries and checking her game traps, Marianne had woken up, and was talking to a bluebird, perched on her finger.</p>
<p>“Morning. Sleep well?” Marianne startled when Hapi said this, causing the bluebird to fly away.</p>
<p>“I- Yes, thank you…” She looked down, averting her eyes from Hapi’s gaze.</p>
<p>“So uhh, you want breakfast? I’ve got some berries, or I could start cooking some meat.”</p>
<p>“Oh, that isn’t necessary, thank you. Actually, I should go…” Marianne turned to leave, but Hapi lightly grabbed her wrist.</p>
<p>“You don’t have any supplies, though. You should at least eat before you leave.” She wasn’t sure why, but something about Marianne made Hapi want her around.</p>
<p>Marianne sighed softly. “Okay…”</p>
<p>Hapi let go of Marianne’s wrist and went inside of her hut, Marianne following behind her.</p>
<p>The two ate in near silence, until the sound of rain could be heard outside.</p>
<p>“Jeez, I thought the storm had already passed.”</p>
<p>“I guess it hasn’t…”</p>
<p>Hapi thought for a moment. There was something up with this girl, she just wasn’t sure what. She had to figure it out, though.</p>
<p>“Feel free to stay, at least until the storm passes for good.”</p>
<p>“I couldn’t impose myself on you…” Marianne looked down, finishing up the last of her breakfast.</p>
<p>“You wouldn’t be imposing yourself on me, I invited you to stay.” A beat. “Wait. You just want to leave because I’m the ‘monster girl’, is that it?”</p>
<p>“No! That isn’t it at all!”</p>
<p>Hapi’s voice rose, a wave of upset coming over her. “Then why do you want to leave so badly?”</p>
<p>“Because I’m a monster!” Marianne shouted, before sighing. She had never admitted it out loud before, even to herself.</p>
<p>Hapi sat silent, taken aback by Marianne’s sudden outburst. “What do you mean, you’re a monster?”</p>
<p>Marianne stilled, trying to put her words together while holding back tears. “I can turn into a monster. It started with just small gaps in my memory and a messy room. Then suddenly, more things kept happening, and I would find myself not knowing how I got where I was, usually with blood of some sort on me. The monster you heard outside last night was probably me.”</p>
<p>Hapi was stunned. She believed Marianne’s story, but there was something that concerned her a bit. The monster that she had heard last night, after she had sighed, was Marianne. She had unknowingly brought her here.</p>
<p>“Well, that explains something, then…”</p>
<p>“What do you mean?”</p>
<p>“The rumors about me aren’t completely fake. The part about me being some evil girl who controls monsters, that part’s fake. But for some reason, I can attract monsters, and communicate with them. Whenever I sigh, it causes monsters to know where I am, and usually come after me. I usually can control it, but I accidentally sighed last night, and I heard a monster coming. And then, after the sound of the monster had died off, I found you, passed out outside my house. I think I may have accidentally brought you to me…”</p>
<p>Marianne looked at Hapi, expression somewhere between shock and fear. “It isn’t safe for you to be around me. I’m sorry.”</p>
<p>“Hang on, what makes you so sure about that? You’ve been here since last night, and you haven’t even hurt a fly.”</p>
<p>“Maybe I haven’t hurt anything here…” Marianne mumbled under her breath, thinking about the events that had happened before she ran into the woods.</p>
<p>“Hmm?”</p>
<p>“N-Nothing, it’s nothing…”</p>
<p>“It’s obviously something, you seem even more upset than before.” Hapi thought before speaking again. “What happened before you went into the woods?”</p>
<p>Marianne stared at Hapi, tears starting to well up in the corners of her eyes. “I- I didn’t mean to hurt them it just happened I was in my bed and then suddenly I was in my parents’ room and they were-“ By this point, Marianne was sobbing.</p>
<p>Hapi knew how Marianne was feeling, mostly. Even though she had been young, she remembers the monster attack clearly. She remembered blaming herself when she had survived but her parents hadn’t. It was still so vivid in her head, she almost knew what Marianne was feeling.</p>
<p>Almost. As Hapi had grown, she had realized that it wasn’t her fault that her parents had died. She didn’t kill them. Marianne might not be able to say the same. She hadn’t meant to do it, Hapi knew that. But it would be harder for Marianne to accept that it wasn’t her fault, that she wasn’t in control, had no idea she was doing anything.</p>
<p>Not knowing what to say, Hapi hugged her, letting her cry as long as she needed, suppressing a sigh of her own.</p>
<p>After a few minutes, Marianne had calmed down, and just stayed still. The room was silent, save for the rain falling gently outside.</p>
<p>“I know what it’s like, blaming yourself for a death you didn’t mean to cause. My parents died when I was a kid, and even though I didn’t know about this stupid curse, I still felt like it was my fault, because I’d lived. So I ran away, not knowing what else to do.”</p>
<p>“Y-You didn’t kill them though…”</p>
<p>“And you didn’t either. You had no idea what was happening, and you were powerless to stop it. Blaming yourself for something out of your control doesn’t get you anywhere except in more pain.”</p>
<p>Marianne sighed, not emotionally able to argue about it. Eventually, she fell asleep, exhausted from crying. Hapi gently pulled herself off of her, and put the blanket over her.</p>
<hr/>
<p>When Marianne woke up, it was nearly dark, but Hapi was nowhere to be seen. Looking around, she found a note written on a scrap of paper in handwriting that would match someone who had been living alone in the woods since she was nine: “in village for supplies, be back soon. feel free to stay”.</p>
<p>Marianne didn’t know what to do. She was a danger to Hapi. A girl who summons monsters, and a girl who turns into a monster without notice. It would be better for her to leave, let Hapi forget about her and continue on with her own life.</p>
<p>But for some reason, she felt like she couldn’t leave. She felt safe here, felt understood, something she never thought anyone could do. Hapi knew how to deal with monsters, she could communicate with them. Maybe being around someone who could talk to her, even when she wasn’t herself, could help keep others safe. She didn’t want anyone else to get hurt.</p>
<p>She would stay, she had decided, at least for a little while.</p>
<p>She looked around the hut, finding a well worn children’s book about a mercenary and the goddess, probably something Hapi had brought with her as a child. She decided to read the book until Hapi was back, to keep her mind occupied.</p>
<p>Before she knew it, Hapi had returned with a knapsack of supplies, and a worn out blanket she had found on a clothesline.</p>
<p>“Hey. Glad to see someone else enjoying that for a change.” Hapi’s voice caused her to look up, and she smiled slightly.</p>
<p>Marianne put the book down. “Sorry, I just wanted something to do…”</p>
<p>“Nothing to be sorry for, Bluebird.”</p>
<p>The nickname took her aback. “Bluebird?”</p>
<p>“You’re cool if I call you that, right? I like giving nicknames to people.”</p>
<p>“Oh, it’s fine. I like it.”</p>
<p>Hapi sat down, pulling the newfound blanket over herself, preparing to go to sleep.</p>
<p>“H-Hapi? Is it okay if I stay, at least for a while? I’ll help you with gathering supplies, and with healing if you need…” Marianne was nervous about what Hapi might say. She wouldn’t be surprised if she said no; Hapi had only known her for a day or so, she was just some strange girl who could transform into a monster.</p>
<p>Hapi’s answer surprised her, however. “Sure. It’d be nice to have company for a change.”</p>
<p>Marianne sighed, relieved, but also thankful. She had no idea what she would do, if she had said no. She couldn’t go back to the village, it would be far too suspicious now. She knew what she was going to do, at least for the time being. She turned over onto her back, pulling the blanket Hapi had given her the night before over herself.</p>
<p>“Thank you.” Marianne yawned, and quietly fell asleep, much more tired than she had thought she was.</p>
<hr/>
<p>Hapi and Marianne were walking home from the village. Marianne had been staying with her for a few weeks now, helping with the hunting and with gathering supplies. Marianne liked having someone around who could sort of understand her, and Hapi enjoyed having someone else around, a luxury she hadn’t had in twelve years.</p>
<p>They had visited Marianne’s home that night. It was still unoccupied, untouched by any villagers, out of fear that the monster would return. They collected some of Marianne’s things from her room, clothes, pillows and blankets, a few books, a small goddess statue.</p>
<p>It comforted Marianne to have things that were familiar to her again, but still hurt her, knowing that she probably wouldn’t go back to that house again. Hapi had comforted her, reminded her that she didn’t have to go back if she didn’t want to. Marianne had to, though, for her own sake.</p>
<p>Hapi tripped, her foot caught in the roots growing up from a bush. She wasn’t used to being caught off guard in her home territory. As she picked herself back up, she let out a small sigh, before even thinking to hold it in. “Oh no.”</p>
<p>“What is it?”</p>
<p>“I just sighed. My sighs always attract the nearest monster.”</p>
<p>Marianne understood what she meant. Her sighs attract the nearest monster, which, in this case, was her. She had no idea what might happen. She had never been around Hapi when she sighed.</p>
<p>Her world slowly began to go black. “Run,” she told Hapi, dropping the bag of supplies she’d been carrying as everything went dark.</p>
<p>Hapi didn’t run. She stood there, watching as her only friend transformed into a giant beast, dark grey fur towering over her, bright red eyes staring into her soul.</p>
<p>Hapi could communicate with monsters. She didn’t like fighting them normally, if she could help it. She could usually talk them into leaving her alone. She definitely did not want to fight Marianne.</p>
<p>The beast growled, looking down at Hapi. She had no idea if the beast would see her as a friend or as a stranger, but she knew she had to try talking to her.</p>
<p>“Bluebird, it’s just me. You’re still in there, I know you are.”</p>
<p>The beast growled angrily, but there was something off about the anger, like there was something pushing back against whatever was causing it.</p>
<p>“You’re still in there. You can fight this. You are not a monster.”</p>
<p>Marianne was fighting back against the beast, whether she knew it or not. The beast growled once more, but soon collapsed to the ground, unconscious. Slowly, Marianne transformed back into herself, fast asleep on the ground.</p>
<p>Relieved, Hapi shoved the supplies Marianne had dropped into her knapsack, and picked her up, carrying her back to the hut.</p>
<p>When Marianne came to, she was upset.</p>
<p>“You should have left me behind, I could have hurt you…”</p>
<p>“I knew you wouldn’t. I was talking to you. I could tell you were fighting back. That monster wasn’t you, Bluebird. You wouldn’t have hurt me.”</p>
<p>Hapi went over to Marianne and hugged her, trying to help calm her back down.</p>
<p>“Thank you for trying to talk me through it…”</p>
<p>“You don’t need to thank me. I couldn’t just leave you there.”</p>
<p>Marianne looked at Hapi. She couldn’t believe that someone would stay, when she was a beast, knowing that they could get hurt if they didn’t escape.</p>
<p>Before she knew what she was doing, Marianne gently kissed Hapi, but then tried standing, panicked once she realized what she had done.</p>
<p>Before she could stand, Hapi, looking incredibly shocked, held Marianne tighter, and returned the kiss.</p>
<p>When the two broke apart, they were both smiling.</p>
<hr/>
<p>For years, there had been rumors in the village, of two girls in the woods. One, a girl who could control monsters. The other, a human girl who could transform into a ferocious beast. Nobody knew what these two had to do with each other, if anything at all. Some say they were predator and prey. Others two best friends, and others still thought something more.</p>
<p>No villager dared entering the woods, for fear of a monster attack. Ever since the Edmunds were attacked that night long ago, with the parents killed, and their daughter suddenly disappearing into the night, nobody wanted to tempt fate.</p>
<p>No matter what version of the story people believed, the girls in the woods paid them no mind. They knew the truth of the rumors, and that was what mattered to them.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thank you so much for reading this! I really hope you enjoyed it. This is my first time writing fic in five years, and I'm really proud of how this turned out. It's actually the longest thing I've ever written, fic-wise</p></blockquote></div></div>
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